Help With Ag Equipment And Set Up

[chappo1970]

Ok Guys,
A little background for ya to start.

On this Saturday just past, I innocently went to Craftbrewers to pick up some grains, hops and yeast for a mini mash brew I had been really wanting to do, a LCBA clone (BTW thanks Butters turned out awesome!). Anyway bloody stuffin' Craftbrewers, you know Ross and his Evil hoard of gouls (Joke Ross I love ya mate! And the boys are great too! I just had to say that in case the wife reads this ), well we started talking BIAB this and AG that... Anyway one thing lead to another and I'm walking out of CB's with a heap of gear and the wallet a whole heap lighter. What gets me is I was all suited up and very keen to convert the newly aquired fridge for kegging WTF? :huh:

OT but actually funny, I stupidly tried to hide the gear in the garage behind my little project car. Now SWSBO never goes there, ever, and you guessed it... she found my dirty little stash. I swear women have a sixth sense when comes to husbands spending money on their hobbies? Thing was she didn't say anything till last night when we had friends over so she just slowly roasted me in front our friends and there was nothing I could do but smile and try to laugh it off! Damn I hate that!

Anywho I have put together the following bits and pieces. I want to do my first AG in the next couple of weeks and I was wondering if there is anything more I need or to set up to help the day go easy? I will probably go a 3 tier gravity set up approach for now with looking to the future of a HERMS type set up.

Gear I have:
40lt Crown Electric Urn (Yes it's the new ones CB's are just stocking check the website for specs) as a HLT
65lt Esky with copper pipe manifold (Home made manifold 12mm copper with slots)
70lt Kettle Aluminium
Rambo gas burner (Sorry RazE, you snooze you loose. I hope Ross had another one for you mate?)
3m Silicon Hoses and hose clamps
3 x SS ball valves and spigots (Urn, Mash Tun and Kettle)
Emersion Chiller (Copper pipe 15m 12mm home made jobby)
35 Esky to hold chiller water and pond pump.
20lt secondary pot (Later to be convert to HERMS vessel)
Mash Paddle (But not as goods as SJ's)
1.5lt Hot water jug
1, 2 and 5lt jugs
Glass thermometer (Old school style like me!)
Hydrometer and vessel
Electric scales (up 2kgs in 0.1gr increments)
I guess all the other usual bobs and bits when doing Kits and bits.

Gear I see I need: (I can here Ross on the phone to the Merc dealer, Do you have one in Red?)
Another Tempmate set up for running the urn but with the SS probe
Refract-o-meter thingamy bobber?
Temp gauges for the Mash tun and Kettle
Metal Rig to hold kettle above burner

Things I need to do before the day:
Set the whole damn thing up.
Weld up the Metal Rig to hold kettle above burner
Urn has a sight glass so I need calibrate that.
Kettle will need to be calibrated as well
Do I need to calibrate the Mash tun as well?
Read JP's book over again
Fabricate the curved pick up tube in the kettle


Ok all these bits and pieces are spread over the garage/brewhaus floor so I have no pictures to help but after tonight I might start posting the progress for those interested.

Any suggestions/criticisms would be appreciated.


Note: Oh and thanks Craftbrewer's, Ross and the boys for having the patience of 10 men while I phaffed around making my mind up which bits to buy. I was good to meet other AHBer's there too RazE and alike.

 

[~MikE]

Thing was she didn't say anything till last night when we had friends over so she just slowly roasted me in front our friends and there was nothing I could do but smile and try to laugh it off! Damn I hate that!

man, that is funny - and harsh.

 

[Supra-Jim]

One tip for your immersion chiller. For starters run ordinay tap water from the garden hose through it initially. This will help you knock out alot of heat prior to using ice. Collect the water from this initial run, it will be nice and hot and good for cleaning your gear once you've finished. Once your done cleaning, tip the water onto your garden. I figured i wasn't wasting water if i managed to use it 3 times (cooling/cleaning/watering).

Switch over to the ice system (see the photo in my thread). I froze some large blocks of ice a couple of days ahead, as party ice is too small and melts too easily.

Good idea to work out some way of measuring your volume into the kettle. i used dowl and measured the depth of the wet mark (was pre-boiled in the htl) against some earlier experiements with water.

Don't worry about the refractometer jsut yet. Palmers book has a table towards the back that details the temperature corrections for hot wort.

Remember (as i was told) write down everything so you can compare later on.

Other than that, just get stuck in and go for it. it is suprisingly simple once you get started.

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[Supra-Jim]

My brewery has replaced a project car, as far as where money gets spent. I swear the car was easier to hide stuff though, cos as long as you got it under the bonnet and installed before she saw it, everything was fine.

Parts delivered to work, dropped of at mates on the way home, Saturday head over to mates to help him "fix something on his car".

SWMBO does enjoy the odd homebrew so that helps keep funds supplied to the latest project!!

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[chappo1970]

One tip for your immersion chiller. For starters run ordinay tap water from the garden hose through it initially. This will help you knock out alot of heat prior to using ice. Collect the water from this initial run, it will be nice and hot and good for cleaning your gear once you've finished. Once your done cleaning, tip the water onto your garden. I figured i wasn't wasting water if i managed to use it 3 times (cooling/cleaning/watering).

Switch over to the ice system (see the photo in my thread). I froze some large blocks of ice a couple of days ahead, as party ice is too small and melts too easily.

Cheers SJ this is why I was asking you so many damn questions on your post this morning on your AG brew day. Sorry for being a bit of a PITA and being off topic BTW.

I saw the esky with the ice bricks and thought that was a really good idea. So let me get this right SJ, you run the tap water thru the chiller first, I assume the return water is going into the HLT and or Mash tun at this stage, and then once you've knocked the majority of the heat out of the wort you then go for ice bucket esky?

 

[Supra-Jim]

I have a big black bucket thing from Bunnings that i collected the warm/hot water in after it had been through the immersion chiller, then just dropped in the stuff that needed cleaning. If you start out straight away with ice, you will melt your way through a lot of ice. The water exiting the chiller is quite hot and good for cleaning.

Remember to keep the wort moving around with your stirring spoon. Immersion chillers work best with the wort moving across their coils.

I think i switched to the ice water, once the wort hit about 45deg.

Always happy to answer questions Chappo.

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[raven19]

Gear I see I need: (I can here Ross on the phone to the Merc dealer, Do you have one in Red?)
Another Tempmate set up for running the urn but with the SS probe - not really required, new urn, built in thermostat will be good
Refract-o-meter thingamy bobber? Handy - reduces sample size = more into fermenter.
Temp gauges for the Mash tun and Kettle - not really required yet, I use glass thermometer too along with a hand held digital probe thermometer
Metal Rig to hold kettle above burner - yep or just go with some bricks or similar for now until you are happy with your tiered setup. Milk crates are also handy as temporary stands - check stability first though, elevated hot water dangerous.

Things I need to do before the day:
Set the whole damn thing up. - yup
Weld up the Metal Rig to hold kettle above burner - see above
Urn has a sight glass so I need calibrate that. - yup
Kettle will need to be calibrated as well - yup
Do I need to calibrate the Mash tun as well? - nope
Read JP's book over again - nah you know it now.
Fabricate the curved pick up tube in the kettle - yup

Other things:
* Gloves (just incase of stuck sparge - which wont happen)
* Spare clean bucket/fermentor
* Extra cool & hot water on hand to adjust your mash in temp if need be
* Camera
* Computer on, AHB on the ready... someone will be online to help worst case
+ 100 Pen and paper, take lots of readings, measurements & notes
* Send SWMBO and kiddies to mother in laws / movies / park
* Dont crack your first beer until wort is running into fermentor, trust me the wait will be worth it

I am sure it will go well. Cheers!

 

[raven19]

Also do a wet run of hot water only, you want to be free of leaks and other problems come brew day. :icon_cheers:

 

[thunderchild]

Ok Guys,
A little background for ya to start.

On this Saturday just past, I innocently went to Craftbrewers to pick up some grains, hops and yeast for a mini mash brew I had been really wanting to do, a LCBA clone (BTW thanks Butters turned out awesome!). Anyway bloody stuffin' Craftbrewers, you know Ross and his Evil hoard of gouls (Joke Ross I love ya mate! And the boys are great too! I just had to say that in case the wife reads this ), well we started talking BIAB this and AG that... Anyway one thing lead to another and I'm walking out of CB's with a heap of gear and the wallet a whole heap lighter. What gets me is I was all suited up and very keen to convert the newly aquired fridge for kegging WTF? :huh:

OT but actually funny, I stupidly tried to hide the gear in the garage behind my little project car. Now SWSBO never goes there, ever, and you guessed it... she found my dirty little stash. I swear women have a sixth sense when comes to husbands spending money on their hobbies? Thing was she didn't say anything till last night when we had friends over so she just slowly roasted me in front our friends and there was nothing I could do but smile and try to laugh it off! Damn I hate that!

Anywho I have put together the following bits and pieces. I want to do my first AG in the next couple of weeks and I was wondering if there is anything more I need or to set up to help the day go easy? I will probably go a 3 tier gravity set up approach for now with looking to the future of a HERMS type set up.

Gear I have:
40lt Crown Electric Urn (Yes it's the new ones CB's are just stocking check the website for specs) as a HLT
65lt Esky with copper pipe manifold (Home made manifold 12mm copper with slots)
70lt Kettle Aluminium
Rambo gas burner (Sorry RazE, you snooze you loose. I hope Ross had another one for you mate?)
3m Silicon Hoses and hose clamps
3 x SS ball valves and spigots (Urn, Mash Tun and Kettle)
Emersion Chiller (Copper pipe 15m 12mm home made jobby)
35 Esky to hold chiller water and pond pump.
20lt secondary pot (Later to be convert to HERMS vessel)
Mash Paddle (But not as goods as SJ's)
1.5lt Hot water jug
1, 2 and 5lt jugs
Glass thermometer (Old school style like me!)
Hydrometer and vessel
Electric scales (up 2kgs in 0.1gr increments)
I guess all the other usual bobs and bits when doing Kits and bits.

Gear I see I need: (I can here Ross on the phone to the Merc dealer, Do you have one in Red?)
Another Tempmate set up for running the urn but with the SS probe
Refract-o-meter thingamy bobber?
Temp gauges for the Mash tun and Kettle
Metal Rig to hold kettle above burner

Things I need to do before the day:
Set the whole damn thing up.
Weld up the Metal Rig to hold kettle above burner
Urn has a sight glass so I need calibrate that.
Kettle will need to be calibrated as well
Do I need to calibrate the Mash tun as well?
Read JP's book over again
Fabricate the curved pick up tube in the kettle


Ok all these bits and pieces are spread over the garage/brewhaus floor so I have no pictures to help but after tonight I might start posting the progress for those interested.

Any suggestions/criticisms would be appreciated.


Note: Oh and thanks Craftbrewer's, Ross and the boys for having the patience of 10 men while I phaffed around making my mind up which bits to buy. I was good to meet other AHBer's there too RazE and alike.

I hate you, I hate you!!!!!



have fun playing with your beer porn. At least your missus didn't make you take it back to ross.

 

[Pumpy]

Hell you have all the gear you need to get mashing

I started with only a few bits .

you will learn quicker how you need to build a brewframe, if you start off with just a few bricks and crates,

Bonj started with rubber tyres !

Your missus will think you are bonkers, but tell her that you could have chose golf as a hobby, lot more expensive .

best of luck, if it all goes wrong ,your beer will still taste better than anything else you have tasted .

pumpy

 

[clean brewer]

OT but actually funny, I stupidly tried to hide the gear in the garage behind my little project car. Now SWSBO never goes there, ever, and you guessed it... she found my dirty little stash. I swear women have a sixth sense when comes to husbands spending money on their hobbies? Thing was she didn't say anything till last night when we had friends over so she just slowly roasted me in front our friends and there was nothing I could do but smile and try to laugh it off! Damn I hate that!

I found a nice little fridge on Ebay a while back for fermenting and a guy up the road was selling it, missus knew all about it and I told her that I won it($100 ).. Anyhow, I went and picked it up and brought it home, she helped me unload it and had a good look and was quite impressed, just the other week, she comes in the garage and says "where did that white fridge come from? :blink: ".. I proceeded to remind her that it was the one I won on Ebay and you helped me unload it!! Still was a bit suss on me, bloody alzheimers at 34..

I dont really hide anything anymore, she knows its alot cheaper than buying beer and its something I really enjoy.. She has even started to ask the odd question when im brewing or milling grain.. All is going nicely here..